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The fact that Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords has been released for five platforms now is a testament to the insidious appeal of its formula. While the idea of splicing RPG elements into a match-three puzzle game seems pretty incongruous at first glance, it begins to make a lot more sense after you take a few minutes to play. After all, RPGs have always relied on random numbers to put their engines in motion, so in the end, does it really matter if it's a Bejeweled grid determining your fate instead of an imaginary 20-sided die? Everything about the game seems built expressly to nurture your addiction to it: if the RPG stats-twiddling doesn't get you, then the mesmerizing gem-matching game that enables the higher concept will.

Gem matching is essentially the name of the game.

It's easiest to think of Puzzle Quest's operative expression of gameplay as "head-to-head Bejeweled." You and your opponents straddle an 8x8 grid of gems and icons, and your goal is to reduce their hit points to zero before they do yours. Depending on the colors of the gems that you match, you'll bolster your mana reserves, inflict damage on your opponent, or gain cash and experience. Three is the minimum items you need to line up to garner any effect, but if you match more, you'll trigger bonuses like an extra turn or wildcard gems that multiply your mana gains when you work them into a match. Mana is used to power spells, which can have a number of game-related effects. Some directly affect your opponents by, say, inflicting damage on them, or causing them to miss a turn. Others will alter the playfield in various ways -- stuff like changing the colors of gems, or eliminating entire rows or columns altogether.

If you've played match-three games extensively, then you might feel that strategy takes a back seat to luck more often than not. But Puzzle Quest manages to dodge this bullet to varying degrees through its heavy focus on spells. More than anything else, the game rewards players that are mindful of its economy. Essentially, if you make sure you have enough mana to power your spells, and are canny enough to deny your opponents of the colors that they need, then you'll do okay. In fact, playing the game in this deliberate kind of way will allow you to eke out more experience- and cash-granting matches than if you take a fast-and-careless approach.